Cutting Off Your Nose
Dear Old Dad would sometimes say "that's just cutting off your nose to spite your face." I don't know how common the expression is, but I'm finding a lot of use for it, lately. When Dad used it he meant that somebody was doing something counterproductive of his own ends or deliberately choosing a bad solution for the wrong reasons. I am reminded of that when I keep seeing people who claim to be Republicans, but who then work to sabotage the Republican Party. They're highly inventive at doing it, too.
For example, you have the kind who get elected as a delegate to the convention, and then stay away because they do not "like" the one candidate running for the nomination. How silly is that? If you think you can do better, or know somebody that can, get that hat in the ring! You can't beat somebody with nobody. Like it or not, the rest of us "establishment" types will go to the election with the candidate we have, unless you give us a better one. And when the election rolls around, I don't want to hear how the Republican candidate "isn't conservative enough." One thing you can count on is that the Republican is more conservative than the Democrat, regardless of what the Democrat says. The other thing I hear too often is that somebody "can't vote for [the incumbent Republican] because he voted for/against X." How stupid is that? Some guy that votes as you like 85, 90 or 95% of the time, and you prefer a Democrat that will vote as you like 10, 5 or 0% of the time!?! Because that is what will happen!
"Republicans" and conservatives are the ONLY people I know who "think" this way. Democrats vote Democrat, and they don't care what the candidate does or says because they understand that without getting elected they don't have POWER to force their ideas on the rest of us. It's time Republicans (and pretend Republicans) understood that very simple fact, that the election is between good and evil and we're the good guys. If you know a better guy and can convince the rest of us AND stick around long enough to help get him elected, great, wonderful. If you're going to pick up your marbles and go home because you can't see that very simple choice, then kwitcherbellyachin'.